The Reborn Ex's Revenge

"I'm not faking being mute. Talking to her just makes me sick." I froze outside the private room, fingers digging into the doorframe.

Through the crack in the door, the man laughing over his drink was my husband. His one that got away had been dead for four years.

He had played mute for every single one of them. "Mr. Vance, faking a disability at home all day. Doesn't it get exhausting?" His boys howled, egging him on.

Even my breath was shaking. Four full years of waiting on him hand and foot. Four full years of the silent treatment. Headlights speared through my eyes.

The scream of brakes crushed everything. When I opened them again, the air was quiet. I was five years in the past. His one that got away was still alive.

Grayson stood in front of me, frowning. I didn't hesitate. I shoved him straight at that woman. "Go to her." My voice came out cold. The impatience on his face cracked apart.

He grabbed my wrist. His fingertips were ice.

His voice was actually shaking. "Why are you pushing me toward someone else?" Chapter 1 On Grayson's birthday, I had one last gift ready for him.

I cooked him a whole table of dishes from scratch, the way I always did. Then I waited. And waited. The food went cold. One of his friends finally told me where he was. The Juniper.

Something in my chest went hollow. I got up, numb, and went after him. The private room was all colored light and clinking glasses, a whole crowd of them deep into the night.

Every one of them was Grayson's people. I reached for the door and pushed it open a crack. The voices inside snapped into focus.

One of his boys was ribbing him. "Playing mute at home all day, Mr. Vance? You must be about to burst!" Cold washed over me, scalp to heels.

Someone else piled on. "Seriously, that Winnifred woman is way too much. No way I could live with her." "How long are you gonna keep the act going, Grayson?

It's been four years." I had rushed over because I was worried about him. Worried the drinking would wreck his body. My ears rang. My legs went soft under me.

I clenched my fists until my nails carved into my palms. It was the only thing that kept the sound in.

Inside, the man who was supposed to be mute spoke, and his voice was flat and cool. "I'm not faking it.

I just hate everything that has anything to do with her." Then he snorted. "She's so stupid. Four years, and she never once caught on." "Right?

Your voice came back a month after the crash, and Winnifred never noticed a thing." "If it weren't for Juniper… you wouldn't have had to settle for her." "It's your birthday, man.

Enough about Winnifred!" Grayson's face shuttered. He tipped his glass back and drained it. Strange.

Even from that distance, through a crack in the door, I could see his eyes were rimmed red. It was laughable. All of it.

For four years, I truly believed the accident had taken his voice for good. And I didn't care. So what if he couldn't talk? I still could. So I talked to him. Every single day.

I told him stories, tried to make him smile. I told him every little thing that happened to me. I cooked for him from scratch, meal after meal, building his health back up.

Hoping that one day, I'd earn a corner of his heart. Four years. Even a stone would have warmed up by now. There was only one name I never dared touch. Juniper Vale.

The one that got away. The real owner of The Juniper. The woman I would never measure up to. I eased the door shut, and the voices cut off. I couldn't hear the sneering anymore.

The world tilted in slow waves. Somewhere behind me, someone seemed to call out, "Ms. Hayes?" I couldn't spare it a thought.

I drifted to the curb and dug my phone out of my pocket with unsteady hands. My fingers wouldn't hold still. The street smeared in and out of focus. Low blood sugar. Of course.

I popped a candy in my mouth and let it sit there. Then, finally, I sent Grayson the message. [Me: Grayson, let's get a divorce.] My birthday gift to him was a divorce agreement.

I asked for nothing. Just the mansion we had lived in for four years. And that was the moment it finally sank in. I would never beat a dead woman. Not before. Not ever after.

Chapter 2 Light flooded over me. A truck was bearing down on me.

Behind me, a voice, familiar and strange at once, screamed my name. "Winnifred!" When I opened my eyes, I was five years in the past. None of it had happened yet.

His one that got away was still alive. Grayson and I weren't even married. Joy hit me so hard I could barely breathe. I had just graduated.

Grayson's family had taken a brutal hit, and his one that got away had gone abroad. Last time, I quit a job with a real future for him. Didn't think twice.

I joined his company and helped him claw it up from nothing. All those years of overwork and skipped meals had left him with severe stomach ulcers.

So I cooked him proper food, a different menu every day. At client dinners, when we needed some potbellied executive to sign, I worried the liquor would tear his stomach apart.

So I drank for him. I drank the clients under the table to land his contracts. Maybe, back then, it actually moved him.

The night I threw up until the world spun, he didn't look at me with disgust. For once. He brewed me ginger tea to sober me up instead. He was quiet a long time.

Then he asked, "Winnifred. Is it worth it?" Even blind drunk, I still liked him. I smiled until my eyes curved. "Totally worth it. I like Grayson best.

Best in the whole world." But being moved doesn't survive the long years. It didn't stand a chance against his grief for the one that got away. In the end, I learned the truth.

He wasn't worth it. This time, I was not quitting my job for him. My phone rang. Grayson.

His voice sounded worn thin. "Did your resignation go through yet?" I looked down at the letter in my hand.

If I hadn't come back, I'd be walking into the CEO's office with it right about now. I'd wave off every attempt to keep me.

Then I'd march into a scrappy little startup with nothing to its name. And spend years building it beside Grayson. His one that got away would be robbed and left dead overseas.

Grayson would collapse in on himself and become a "mute." And in the end, part pressure, part bribery, I'd get him to marry me.

I smiled into the phone. "Grayson, I just messaged your one that got away and told her exactly how you're doing.

She says she'll come back. "From now on, let her keep you company." Long silence on the other end. He was probably frowning. I could picture it exactly.

Then, low: "What is that supposed to mean?" I spelled it out for him, one word at a time. "It means whoever wants to quit can quit.

I am not walking away from a Fortune 500 job!" "You—" He didn't get another word in. I had already hung up. The knot that had been sitting in my chest loosened. Just a little.

Just enough. Then a voice sounded behind me, deep and warm with laughter. "That fond of the job?" I turned and looked straight into Atticus Lockwood's eyes.

A smile sat in the corners of them. Last time, plenty of people kicked me while I was down. Plenty more bet against me and Grayson.

But the night I drank myself into a bleeding ulcer and still didn't land that deal, one person spoke up for me. Atticus Lockwood. It took me years to learn the rest.

That client had planned to sign with him all along. He was the one who suggested giving the contract to me. I died without ever getting the chance to thank him.

My eyes went hot before I could stop them. I bent into a deep, fromthewaist bow. "Thank you, Mr. Lockwood." "No idea what you're thanking me for," he said, "but you're welcome.

Next time, save a gesture that grand for my funeral." I said nothing. Serves you right, you smug jerk. Not one girlfriend, all the way to the day I died.

Chapter 3 I'd liked Grayson since the day I met him in college. Back then, the whole school buzzed about him and Juniper Vale.

People posted on the campus confessions page just to fish for updates on the two of them. In the end, they never got together. So I thought I had a chance.

After graduation, I kept orbiting him. Every time his boys saw me, the jokes started. "Look who it is.

Grayson's little tagalong, back again." "Not as pretty as Juniper, though." "Why didn't you bring Juniper instead?" They didn't treat me like a person.

I was the party entertainment. And when I got upset, Grayson frowned. At me. "Quit being dramatic.

They don't mean anything by it." Some people are fine at everything else and lose their minds the second they fall in love. I lowered my standards for him. Over and over.

Not anymore. I stayed at Lockwood Group. Knowing Grayson's pride, I figured he'd never come near me again.

Then, that same day after work, a familiar car cut across the lane and slammed to a stop in front of me. It nearly clipped my leg. The window slid down.

Grayson's face, cold and hard. His brows pulled tight, his patience already gone. "Winnifred Hayes, what exactly are you playing at? "You said you'd quit.

That's just off now? "All that talk about liking me, about coming to build the company with me. Was that a joke to you?" I gave him my brightest smile. "Yep. Bite me.

With an offer this good, I'd have to be kicked in the head by you to run off and play startup." He stared at me like I'd grown a second head. A few seconds later, he laughed.

One short, scornful sound. "Winnifred Hayes, playing hard to get doesn't suit you." Excuse me? Then a hand settled on my waist.

From somewhere above my head came a voice, cool and steady. "When you come to our wedding, remember to bring that hardtoget act.

It can double as your gift." It was Atticus Lockwood